A Change Of Pace

Rather than post 7 pages of text here, this week I invite you to download a free copy of a new, mini-Ebook just posted at the Free Publicity Focus Group website:

http://www.freepublicitygroup.com

The Ebook is entitled 'The New Marketing and Publicity Rules". It is located in the free section on the left menu.

Enjoy . . .

Don McCauley
Free Publicity Focus Group
Performance Based Marketing and Publicity
http://www.freepublicitygroup.com
http://freepublicitypro.blogspot.com

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Creating Publicity Through Writing For Publication - Part Two

Here are the specific steps to landing writing gigs (and getting a great deal of free advertising and publicity) with small, local publications . . .

Step One
Find a small, local publication and offer to contribute articles or local area specific pieces. Show them samples. Establish the fact that you are a published author and can provide quality content for their magazine or newspaper (small weekly community newspapers are best for this). Contribute in trade for a blurb or for ad space.

Step Two
Write for a period of time. Establish yourself. Get comfortable with the process. Naturally you will want to keep in close contact with the editor of the publication. Solicit feedback, but don’t be a pest. Be professional in your approach.


Step Three
After establishing your credibility with the public and with the editor of the publication, ask the editor of this single publication if he or she would be willing to provide a quick reference for you. Don’t insist. Again, be professional.

Step Four
Now you know somebody. Contact other small publications and offer to contribute to their publication. You can now provide samples of your work from a PUBLICATION SIMILAR to their own, and you now have a reference from an editor. You now know somebody. Somebody in the field. Somebody who is willing to vouch for you. People only do business with people they trust.

This may take some time. Expand your horizons are far as you can and still be comfortable.

Step Five
Continue doing this and build a resume. Take on as many of these small publications as you can reasonably handle. Every one of them is providing free ad space for you. Work your way up to the larger publications. It IS best to start with small publications if you have not done this before. Once you feel comfortable with ‘writing on a deadline’, move up to those larger publications.

Nothing will get you booted faster than missing a deadline! Make certain you are capable of making those deadlines. If you miss your deadline you leave that publication in a real bind, especially the smaller pubs. This is very important. However, if you get booted from a small publication the pain will be far less than getting the ax from a larger, more widely read publication.

Step Six
Continue this until you are fabulously rich and extremely famous. The next time you are on the Oprah Winfrey Show, please be certain to mention me. My last name is spelled “M-C-C-A-U-L-E-Y”

Seriously, though, this is a fantastic tool for indirectly marketing your book or business in the public arena. And it keeps you sharp. Many writers dream of making a living writing. Very few actually achieve the goal. This is simply because they are writers, not marketers.

However, you are fast becoming a marketer.

BTW, I have just created a new e-book entitled 'The Greatest Marketing Tool Ever Created'. It is located in the free section of the Free Publicity Focus Group site at http://www.freepublicitygroup.com . This tool, used properly, holds the potential to forever change your marketing life! Enjoy . . .

Leia Mais…

Creating Publicity Through Writing For Publication - Part One

Some of you are writers. You can write. If you can write, this is your greatest marketing tool.

Being the editor of a regional magazine, I can tell you that good writers are hard to come by. This is why so many writers receive rejection letters. That is not to say that a rejection letter means you are not a good writer. You get many rejection letters because the person sending the letter has become overwhelmed with submissions from bad writers. Trust me on this.

Good writers are hard to come by.

As an editor of a small magazine, I am ecstatic when I find a good writer. If I find a good writer and print articles by this good writer, the quality and the value of my magazine increases greatly.

I want good writers. Good writers are VERY hard to come by.

Are you getting the point yet?

The point is simply this: If you are a good writer, small publication editors want to talk to you.

A small pub editor will print you if you are a good writer.

How can you use this?

As the editor of a magazine, I want to compete with larger magazines. I want to do this because I can then attract larger advertising clients, which will increase my cash flow, the bottom line in any business. To compete with the big boys, I must have a quality piece and good content.

Only the writers produce that good content for me.

Therefore, you become very important to me.

I am being simplistic here, but for good reason. I want you to understand the opportunity you, the writer, create for small to medium size publications.

The larger publications are not in this situation. They have good writers. They don’t need you. But the smaller, competitive publications certainly do need you.

The Plan

Start by contacting smaller publications and offer to write for them.

The smaller, local magazines will be open to your suggestion. They will, of course, want to see samples of your work. It is wise to use excerpts from your book, if you can, as you have already had this professionally edited and it represents your finest work.

Try to pick an excerpt that might be relevant to local readers. If your work is fiction, this may not be possible. If not possible at all, start by writing a story about a relative or friend. Show the personal connection. You may also try local history. This will work wonders, if you can pull it off.

HOT TIP: Do NOT ask to be paid. That is an immediate turn-off, going in. There are far too many willing contributing writers to compete with. Offer to be a contributor at first. So, you might innocently ask, why write if you are not being paid?

You are being paid. If you write a full-page article for a publication, it is essentially the same as getting a full-page ad. For you. For your book or your business. However, there is a marked difference here.

The article you write is not so much advertising as it is publicity. These lines are somewhat blurred in the minds of some. The differences between advertising and publicity are easy to understand.

Advertising is a message that is completely controlled by the creator of that message. The goal of any advertising message is to either create awareness or to create action. These messages are purchased by the advertiser.

Publicity on the other hand is not controllable. Publicity can be ‘good’ publicity or ‘bad’ publicity. In addition, the goal is to create awareness, not action. However, publicity CAN create action; occasionally even more so than a properly crafted advertising message.

This is because the public has become jaded in regards to marketing messages. Our email inboxes are jammed with spam. Our physical mailboxes are filled with advertising flyers, letters and postcards of every description. We are overwhelmed with these messages while watching television or listening to radio. Please don’t get me started on the Internet versions of advertising banners, popups, etc.

All we wish to do when going to the inbox, the mailbox, our television, radio or any web page is get the information, the CONTENT we came for. The ad we encounter is perceived to be an interruption. It is the content we came for. Therein lies the simple secret to using publicity as a marketing tool.

The content is gladly welcomed, indeed sought by the seeker. Advertisements, as a general rule, are not. Your writing, your article, will be perceived, in this scenario, as content.

This is gold to you as a writer. Large segments of the public will come to appreciate what you can do and what you might know. And guess what?

There, at the bottom of the page, for the whole world to see is a little blurb . . .

‘Mary Jones is the author of ‘Creampuffs Through The Ages : The Ultimate Guide to Creampuffs’. Her book can be purchased at www.creampuff.com”.

Your article or piece can become a full-page ad if crafted properly.

The only thing you should insist on is that the blurb be placed at the end of any article you write for the publication.

Now most publications will have no problem with this at all. It is normal business practice. This article or piece is a decided benefit for the editor, so much so that many small magazine and newspaper editors are also willing to even consider trading AD SPACE for writers who contribute.

I personally use only local writers for my magazine. I give each and every one of them a free ad for their book or business, every month, in exchange for providing a monthly article for my magazine. This is because I, as the owner of the publication, must otherwise PAY writers. If I instead get a contributor to write and simply trade ad space, I do NOT have to pay for writing.

I can fill up an entire magazine (if desired) with quality writing and never have to pay one penny. The ad space I trade costs me very little as compared to paying a writer. I save money. The contributor creates awareness. In nearly every case throughout the years, these contributors have told me that the articles they write for the magazine produce far more in the way of sales than any advertisement.

This theory will most likely work best with small to medium size publications and local or weekly or specifically targeted newspapers. Please don’t try this one with the New York Times. If you try this with the New York Times please do not mention my name.

This, of course, puts your writing into the public arena. This gets you published. This creates credibility. But there is something more here.

This creates relationships. You do remember relationships, don’t you? If you are an author, having a good relationship with an editor can pay off handsomely when it's name-dropping time.

Don't be afraid to approach these local publications. The potential payoffs are huge. Next week, I will show you specifically how to make an approach to a publication that can result in your message being placed in literally hundreds of print publications for free.

Leia Mais…

Using Article Submission To Create Publicity - Part Two

Last week I promised specifics in regards to using article submission as a marketing tool. Here are the specifics.

Trust

I know you are getting tired of me talking about this subject, but I am attempting to reinforce this in your mind. If you are going to use article submission to put yourself out there as an 'expert' in your field, building trust with your potential client or customer is of primary importance. You begin to build that trust by being aware of the overall 'tone' or 'feel' of the article.

I love scenarios. So let us look at two scenarios to illustrate my point:

Scenario One

Suppose for a moment you are standing at a party. One of your friends points to an extremely well dressed man across the room who is surrounded by a group of people hanging on his every word, some even taking notes. 'That is Joe Smith," says your friend. "He is an author. He shows people how to sell millions of books on the Internet. He has done it for others 1000 times over."

So you saunter on over to the crowd surrounding Mr. Smith. Eventually you get a word in edgewise, introduce yourself and coyly ask, "So how does one sell a million copies of a book on the Internet?"

"Oh, it's very simple," replies Mr. Smith, "ridiculously simple. It can be done in with very little effort whatsoever and takes no time at all. All you must do is . . " Just then someone taps Mr. Smith on the shoulder and whispers in his ear. "Sorry, I must leave," states Mr. Smith, "it was nice meeting you." He walks away.

How would you feel?

You might feel like kicking yourself for not getting to Mr. Smith sooner. You might stay awake all night, tossing and turning. Mr. Smith has the answer and it is very simple. He was willing to give you the answer, the answer you want, the answer you need! But now it is too late.

Come Monday, you call Mr. Smith's office and are informed that it takes 18 months to get an appointment. You offer to pay a little extra, if you can be squeezed in somehow. The answer is a firm no. Now how do you feel?

Mr. Smith has the answer. The answer you want! The answer you need! But now it will be at least 18 months before you can get it.

You have been left hanging. You are in a state of extreme curiosity. You are ready to take action.

Scenario Two

You are sitting in your office when the phone rings.

"Hello," says a voice on the other end, "my name is Fred Jones. I show people how to sell millions of books using the Internet. I would like to show you how. The cost is only $400 per month, this week only!"

"No, thank you," you reply politely.

"But wait," says Mr. Jones, a hint of desperation in the voice, "I have done this for many of my clients. I have had a lot of training. I go to great lengths and offer many free services. Just tell me what you need and I promise I will be able to help you. . . "

"No, thank you," you reply, a bit more forcefully. "But wait, you don't understand . . . " you hear Mr. Jones saying as you hang up the phone . . .

Now think about it for a moment. If you were going to have surgery, would you choose a surgeon who:

a. has a waiting list a month long OR

b. calls you every day and begs you to use his services?

You want to give the reader the impression that you are Mr. Smith, NOT Mr. Jones. The sad fact is that most of the articles I read give the impression that the writer is Mr. Jones. This is not an impression you want to create, either in your articles or on your website. Giving TOO MUCH information creates the impression of ‘neediness’. Your potential buyers pick up on this quite quickly and simply click away.

Trust is created by the attitude, the tone, the feel of your writing.

All other things being equal, people will only do business with people they trust. What is being sold matters not at all. And, conversely, if a potential buyer does not trust you, they will NEVER do business with you. YOU MAKE OR BREAK THAT TRUST IMMEDIATELY IN THE FIRST PARAGRAPH OF THE FIRST ARTICLE your potential buyer reads. You make or break that trust INSTANTANEOUSLY when your website flickers onto the screen. If your article and/or your website does not create INSTANT TRUST and CREDIBILITY, you are dead in the water.

Assuming that you are savvy enough to get beyond the initial trust hurdle, everything you present from this point on will either ADD TO or SUBTRACT FROM the initial trust created.

OK. Let's assume you have fine-tuned the article to not only create trust, but also to not SUBTRACT from it. Let us also assume your article contains the all-important, subtle calls to further action. What then? I have spent a good deal of time conversing with site owners. Here are some other important considerations.

How Many Sites and/or Postings?

As many as reasonably possible. As mentioned previously, submitting articles is extremely time intensive. Submit one article to one hundred sites. You will see what I mean. Your fingers are going to hurt before it's all over.

A good rule of thumb is this: Submit ¾ of your articles to the top 5 to 7 article sites. These are sites that have high Google page rank. Submit the other ¼ of your articles to 30-40 medium to high page rank sites.

The advantage to doing this is that it will keep duplication to a minimum, but will initially give you a quick boost in the number of readers hitting your site. (see next topic)

Different Versions of the Same Article?

Are you penalized for redundant content by the search engines? Do you want to have 15 articles on page 93 of the search engine results? Or would you rather have 1 article listed many times on the first page of the search engine results?

Redundancy is an important topic in regards to article submission. I read posts over and over from those who believe that posting the same article to hundreds of sites results in hundreds of backlinks to YOUR site, raising your ranking in the search engines. Well, yes and no.

Remember always that the purpose of the search engines is to help people find what they are searching FOR. Suppose the above theory were to hold true, and you posted several hundred versions of the exact same article with the term ‘Widget’ in the title.

Joe Citizen now goes to Google and types in the search term ‘widget’. The search engine then returns page after page after page of nothing but YOUR article. How do you think Joe might feel?

Not happy. The search engine is not going to index your article hundreds of times. It will index a few and then simply drop the rest, as this information IS redundant. If you went searching for ‘widget’, would you appreciate seeing your competitions listing over and over again on page after page of search engine results? No indeed.

This is why you want to post that article to only 5-7 of the top sites. This is all that will be indexed and ‘stick’ anyway. When you post the other 25% of your articles in the same vein, there will be a short period of time when they will all be indexed. These will drop away quickly as the search engine catches up. In the meantime, you WILL get traffic from these redundant articles.

To clarify, lets suppose you post 4 articles per week (or per month). Post article 1, 2, and 3 to the top 5-7 sites. Post article 4 to 30-40 mid to highly ranked sites. Then begin a new round of articles.

Submission Software?

There are advantages and disadvantages here. Submission software takes you from site to site, automatically logs you on, sends the article to the site, enters all other information and then logs off and moves to the next site. This is great, in theory. The problem is that most don’t work too well. Some sites flat out refuse to accept articles from authors using these programs. The computer cannot think. It can only do. For this reason, some of these programs can cause nightmares for the person using them.

I am personally of the opinion that you should retain complete control of each submission. This allows you to fine tune the article specifically for the given site and for the given categories on the myriad number of sites out there.

The subtle change of a word or two here or there can make a major difference in the message to the highly targeted audience.

Sites?

Different sites cater to different audiences. Don't submit a self-improvement article to a marketing site.

Categories?

Different sites have differently targeted categories. One of the major beefs site owners have is incorrect category submission (putting a religious article in a transmission repair category). Remember that your article will be reviewed for quality, content, categorization, etc.

Site 'popularity'

This matters a bit. However, these numbers change nearly as quickly as search engine rankings. However the top sites generally do not change much. They are very quick to get your article out there. They are perceived to be expert sites. The links THESE sites create back to your site are valuable indeed.

How often?

Regularly and continually, keeping in mind that the process is somewhat akin to planting seeds. You may not see immediate results, but eventually you will have a field full of plants. Some will be annuals, some biennials, and some perennials.

'Quality' of the article

Nothing will kill the trust and credibility factor more quickly than a shoddily written article, catchy, worn out industry specific phrasing, insincere language or an article containing a blatant sales pitch. Try this experiment. Visit an article site, pick a topic and read through 5-10 articles. Notice anything? What you will notice is that you will have an intuitive impression that will tell you whether a particular writer truly knows the topic. Remember that this is what people will be doing with YOUR article.

PLEASE don't pretend to be an expert if you are not an expert. If you really don't know what you are writing about, nothing will destroy trust more quickly than the fact that you really don't know what you are writing about. Be honest at all times. If you don't know something, say so. If you do know, say so.

And Finally . . .

Article submission, done properly, is a valuable tool in your free marketing arsenal. There are other free marketing tools you will also want to utilize. Press releases, used correctly (see previous posts) may lead to your article being submitted for publication in newspapers or magazines, (also radio interviews, television coverage, etc.). This concept can lead to you being chosen as a regular contributor.

Don't ignore that large segment of the population that, (believe it or not), does not yet own a computer or perhaps owns a computer and simply does not know how to operate the thing. These are the folks who, when looking for a life-coach, will type in the search phrase 'coach' rather than the phrase 'life coach specialization depression'.

So, how does one use article submission to drive insane traffic to one's website?

"Oh, it's very simple, ridiculously simple. It can be done easily and takes practically no time at all. All you must do is . . "

Sorry. . . I have to go . . .

Leia Mais…

Using Article Submission To Create Publicity - Part One

Article submission is a great way to create publicity and to attract traffic to your website. If you can write (and write well, as will be assumed here) this is one of the more popular 'free' marketing techniques that might just work for you.

The General Idea

Here is how article submission works. You write an article covering a specific area of a broader general interest category. You then submit your article to any number of the hundreds of websites that accept these articles. The goal here is two-fold:

a. to create backlinks to your website, raising your 'popularity ranking' in the eyes of the search engine robots AND

b. to position yourself as an expert in your field of expertise.

Let's look briefly at each . . .

Site Ranking

Your website will be ranked by a number of ever-changing factors in relationship to a search term entered by an Internet surfer. Search engine optimization is a subject that will be covered in later posts. However, article submission can have some effect on your search engine ranking. I have been working with a number of life coaches for some time so I will use this as our example.

Typing in the word 'coach' as the search term on Google brings 10,500,000 hits. Yahoo does one better on this one, bringing in 173,000,000 hits. That is one hundred seventy three MILLION hits. In neither case does either engine bring up a life coach at all on that all-important first page.

Now think about it. When YOU surf the Internet, do you look much farther than maybe the first page or two? Most likely not. There are many life coaches who use this article submission as a component of their marketing strategy. So, why aren't any life coaches appearing on that first page? Over and over I hear comments like "Gee, I spent hours and hours posting articles and nothing has happened." Why is this so?

Let's change the search term. Type in the words "life coach". Google now brings 21,800,000 hits. No life coaches on the first page. Type in the search term life coach on Yahoo and you will get 55,600,000 hits. One life coach's website will appear. One single site on the first page. Now, do you know why this ONE person's website appears on this all-important first page? The answer is simple. And it may surprise you . . .

The Article Submission Process

To submit articles you must first find the article submission sites. You then register with the individual article sites. You will be required to fill out a form for each site. Most sites will then send you back a confirmation link, which you must visit to activate your account. After this has been accomplished, you may submit articles, subject to the submission guidelines of the particular site. Depending on the number of sites you register with, this can take from several hours to several days.

Once registered, you will need to visit each site and submit your article. This is where it gets really time intensive, as you will need to fill out a form for each article, paste the article, provide keywords, author information and bio, links and submit the article.

This is AS time consuming, if not MORE time consuming than registering for these sites.

Once the article is submitted it is 'up for review'. Most sites review each and every article submitted. Depending on the relative size of the site, getting your article approved can take from a day to months or even longer.

The Advantages

Submitting articles, as mentioned, has two advantages; it creates back-links to your site and helps to position you as an expert in your field.

The back-link is one of the criteria in determining how well your web site is ranked in relation to all the other sites out there. You will be competing with, in the example above, perhaps 10's of millions of other sites for that coveted high ranking. But of course back-links are not the only criteria in ranking your site. There are many other factors, (again, far too many to list here) which will contribute to the optimization of your site for the search engines.

Time constraints notwithstanding, you will most likely want to use the article submission idea, but don't expect too much in the way of quick results. The article submission process is a bit like dropping pebbles into a bucket of water. At first, it seems as though nothing is happening. After a time though, the pebbles begin to replace the water in the bucket. Eventually, the bucket will be filled with pebbles and no water will remain. Think of this as a process, but it is certainly not as the be-all and end all to search engine Nirvana. Time and effort not withstanding, it is an extremely effective tool in the free marketing arsenal.

Positioning yourself as an expert in your field should be the PRIMARY goal here. Article sites go to great lengths to get the top rankings and keep abreast of changes in search engine criteria. Rely on them to get the ranking for your ARTICLES. You should concentrate on constant submission and on the content of the articles submitted.

The Content

I could write a book on this subject. Someday I may.

Let us use websites to illustrate my next point regarding content. Take a few moments and sit down and just look at your competitor's websites. Get a feel for the content. Notice anything?

Too much information! Plain and simple. I preach and preach and continually preach this to my clients. If you get nothing from these words, please understand this: Every single word, every single sentence, every single paragraph gives your potential customer or client the opportunity to say "No". Every single word, every single sentence and every single paragraph should be carefully designed to do just one thing:

Create curiosity. For it is curiosity that will lead to ACTION.

Yes, yes I know. We want to tell our potential customers all about ourselves. We want them to know what our business, practice or book can do for them. We want them to fully understand why they should consider us as opposed to the competition. And so we give them everything. And when we give them everything, they make a decision BASED on that information. No, no, no. . . WRONG!

Web site designers are not marketers. They are web site designers. They are wonderful people and many of my personal friends design websites for a living. But they are not marketers.

An effective site or article will create curiosity. Period.

This curiosity will lead to action on the part of the potential buyer, client or editor who may be looking at your article or web site. The action should be to request more information or to sign up for a newsletter or any other action you desire. In this case, the article links to your web site. The 'closing' should be done in person. Unless you are marketing a $9.95 booklet or a very low priced product or service, don't try to get potential buyers to take action immediately based on the information on the site or in your article! A $9.95 booklet is an impulse buy. It is an impulsive, hedonic response. If you are marketing a larger ticket item it will not be an impulse buy. The action component of the sales process should always be accomplished IN CYBERSPACE-PERSON!

A Quick Word About Pictures

Please, please be careful with this! Believe it or not, a picture is one of the primary reasons people will make the dreaded snap NO decision.

Real estate agents, for example, especially insist on using a picture in their marketing materials. But if you happen to look like Aunt Bessie who used to smother the client with unwanted kisses years ago, you could lose a potential buyer solely for this reason. You may look too professional. You may look too homespun. The older client may perceive you to be too inexperienced. The younger client may see you as an old fogy. You have no control over this but, either way, you COULD lose. When in doubt, do not use a picture, unless you have a very good reason for doing so.

I could go on and on about this, but I will stop before I get carried away. I am getting off topic.

Information

Your article should provide great information. This is how you position yourself as an expert. But it should not give ALL the information in regards to the topic. Again, it should be carefully crafted to create enough curiosity to get them to click on the link to your site. The article must contain SUBTLE prompts to action. But, remember this: The article may be perfectly written to cause that person to follow up and click through to your site.

The site provides further information. However, again, your site MUST also 'leave them hanging'. This creates further curious ACTION. That action should be to pick up the phone. Sign up for a class. Buy a product or service.

The Viral Factor

There is another factor here that must be considered. When you submit an article to an article site, you must agree to allow others to pick the article from the site and use YOUR article in THEIR publications. This is another primary purpose of these types of sites - to provide content.

This end user might be someone’s website. It could be someone’s newsletter. It may end up in an ezine or magazine. Now, anyone who uses your article (theoretically) CANNOT edit it and must also PRINT YOUR BIO AND THE LINK BACK TO YOUR WEBSITE. This means that the end user is effectively advertising for YOU!

If your article appears in a large company newsletter, ezine or magazine, think of all the free press you will gain! If your article ends up on another entity's website, and that website is highly ranked and gets tons of traffic, you will ride along on THEIR coattails!

Be aware of this when penning your articles. You are potentially writing for many different markets when submitting articles to Internet sites. This presents a wonderful opportunity that, until recent years, has never existed before in history. In years gone by, you would need to seek out a newspaper or a magazine or a publisher of some physical product if you wished to present your articles to the world. This is no longer necessary, as the Internet can now serve as your publishing platform.

The Specifics

There is a tremendous amount of misinformation floating around out there in regards to using article submission as a marketing tool. How many sites? How many articles? Keyword optimization - duplication penalties - categories - site ranking - submission software - timing, on and on and on. Rather than attempt to answer all these questions in a this single post, (which is getting quite long) I will provide the specific answers to all these questions in the next installment of this series.

Leia Mais…

Creating Publicity That Sells

Before I begin I would like to offer my apologies. Much like the 'how-to' books I write, this 'how-to' blog will be short, sweet and very much to the point. My goal here is to give you as much as possible, using as few words as possible. I am not here to sell you anything. I am here to give you the facts.

There is an entire economy and culture that has sprung up built upon 'those who know' selling 'information' and 'informational products' to 'those who don't know'. This is sad. For it takes but a moment of reading through the first few pages of this information to come to the conclusion that a great many of these people have never once actually done what they profess to know so much about. This is a terrible way to begin this blog and I did agonize over it, but I felt it necessary to say. I am saddened by the fact that this is sold as the 'truth' and is bought by those who innocently believe it.

And so I intend to simply give the facts away here. I will start at the most basic of levels and build as we go along. Some of this may be perceived as being a bit simplistic. However a firm foundation will be necessary to your ultimate success. This first post is an attempt to lay that foundation.

Once we have built this foundation, I will attempt to offer you some of the most creative, relatively unknown techniques out there regarding how to use these concepts in ways used by some extremely successful, 'out of the box' thinkers. In every case these will be people who actually DO this every day.

I would like to start by defining the word 'publicity'.

Publicity creates awareness about you and or your company. Publicity is not necessarily ALWAYS purposely created (look at Britney Spears), though this is what we are going to attempt to learn here. It goes without saying that publicity can be positive or negative. Publicity, as a general rule, is therefore not completely controllable. However from this point onward, we will define publicity as:

Your attempt to create, through various means, a positive impression in the minds of your prospective clients or customers.

Publicity is, in a word, awareness. Publicity is not marketing. Publicity is not advertising, Publicity and advertising are but two legs of the beast known as marketing.

As mentioned, publicity is not completely controllable. However, unlike publicity, advertising IS controllable. You create an advertising message and then place the message in the proper media. All aspects of an advertisement are completely controllable by you. However you control only the message, not the response TO the message.

The First 'Rule' Of Marketing

I have stated over and over again that you must completely and thoroughly understand the first rule of marketing. That rule is this:

People Only Do Business With People They Trust.

Ultimately, in every message you send to your potential client, whether publicity or advertising, your first and foremost goal must be to create that all important trust.

You can take classes in publicity. You can take classes in advertising. You cannot take classes in trust building.

Wnen I am asked to offer an opinion on a client's press release or ad or letter, my first reading of the piece is to look for the number of trust building statements. I then analyze the overall feel and positioning of the piece from the trust building perspective.

Now the other side of this coin is that you must not SUBTRACT FROM any trust those clients might already hold in you. Therefore, the third step in this process is to look for those trust destroyers. Only then do I look at the actual mechanics being used.

This is so vital, so basic that it should not need to be verbalized. However, I am somewhat appalled at the messages being put forth by well meaning people in both their publicity and advertising campaigns.

Take a moment today to look at what you are using in your campaigns from this perspective. Are you creating trust? Or are you potentially destroying trust?

Trust can be built or destroyed consciously or unconsciously. Though this goes to the very heart of the matter, I simply do not have the space to cover this completely here, so I will simply recommend you read my recent article 'Creating Trust - Using Words That Sell' located here

http://www.freepublicitygroup.com/articlecreatingtrust.html

Anyone can buy an ad and control the content. This does not create mistrust, but Joe Public knows anyone can do this. Very few can create positive publicity. If Joe Public sees someone on the front page of his local newspaper, he believes that person has EARNED the right to be there.

Therefore, publicity creates trust far more effectively than advertising.

All that being said, we shall start at the very beginning by asking the most basic of questions:

How does one create publicity that creates trust?

This is accomplished quite simply by creating a trust building message - a brand - and using that brand consistently. This brand, this message, is the core of the message you wish to present to the world. This is at the very center of everything else you will produce in your marketing and publicity campaigns, from press releases to advertisements, from radio interviews to brochures and everything in between. Each and every single sentence or paragraph you produce, from sell sheet to website must contain, contribute to or relate to this branding message in some way.

Please do not go off half-cocked without accomplishing this most basic of steps. Learning to do this can mean the difference between your success or your failure. Any person, from interviewer to web site visitor should be able to perceive this message in the first three seconds of exposure to you and your material. This is precisely how long you have to get that message across. About three seconds.

This is often a subconscious process. In that three seconds you must catch the eye or ear and create enough curiousity to keep that person interested enough to continue listening to your message. How do you know if you have accomplished this? By your response rate. Response rates can be difficult to track in some cases, easy in others.

A good example of an easy method is Google Analytics. This is a free tool anyone can use to get great information on the response rate of a particular page or pages on a website. On my sites for example, it will tell me how many people hit the index page - how long they stayed there - and whether they moved to another page on my site or simply clicked away. How can this information be used? Is this important?

You bet it is. Initially I had a rather high 'bounce' rate i.e. people who hit the page, stayed for a few seconds, and then clicked away. This told me my message was not giving them what they wanted. What they wanted was trust. And so I then rewrote, rewrote and again rewrote that page until I now have a situation where X% of people hit the page, X% stay for X minutes, then click through to read an article or two, then move to the purchase page, tell their friends about the site or leave the site.

Eventually we began to test by changing just specific WORDS only. In one case, we changed a single word and increased our ongoing click thru rate by 9%. I use this same theory with press release headings and ad taglines. Sometimes one word has the power to increase your trust factor dramatically. This past week has been spent developing a branding statement for a good friend and life coach. A full week of phone conversations and emails, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth to find those all important 4 or 5 words that will say it all in just a few seconds.

Always remember: Marketing your product, be it a business, a book or a practice is not about you. It is about your response. What you believe may be creating trust may actually be destroying that trust in the minds of your BUYERS. Response rates will tell you how you are faring in the minds of those clients, regardless of your own personal preferences.

Response ratios allow you to fine tune your message for the greatest response. Other forms of publicity and advertising are somewhat harder to track, but it can be done to a degree.

Over the next three weeks I will tear apart the press release creation process and will demonstrate using the branding statement and the words that will get that editors attention in the header of your release. I am starting with press releases in that nowhere is the 'lack of trust factor' more clearly illustrated than in the fine art of getting a press release printed. In the meantime, here is your 'homework'. . .

Develop a statement that you will use the next time someone asks you:

'What is your (business, book, practice) all about?"

This statement must be less than 3 seconds long.

For instance, in my case, my answer is 'I show people how to build massive marketing campaigns for little or no money'.

Yours should be much the same.

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Free Advertising VS Free Publicity

This blog will demonstrate how anyone can create a massive publicity / advertising campaign using free publicity tools and techniques. Further information and free articles can be found at the Free Publicity Focus Group website at www.freepublicitygroup.com.

Were I able to impress a single fact upon the mind of anyone wishing to be successful in selling any product or service in the marketplace, that fact would be this:

Free publicity is the singular key to marketing success. Regardless of the product or service you are attempting to market, this is fact.

You are really up against it when you look at the sheer numbers of competitors for that sales dollar YOU are trying to get your hands on.

Little ol' you, with your little ol' computer, will be competing with corporations who spend millions of dollars per year to advertise and market the exact same product you might be selling.

You will never be able to outspend them.

The corps employ buildings full of experienced salespeople and marketers.

You will not be able to outwork them.

They have roomfuls of analyists on board whose function is to get market share. They have the connections. They have the experience. They have the systems. They have the procedures. They have the contracts in place. Forget it.

You will never be able to outmarket them.

But you, with the help of that single computer and some good information, it is possible that you can . . .

out-think them.

The Internet brings an entirely new opportunity to the small to mid-size marketer, in that it is no longer necessary to follow traditional METHODS to achieve success. It is no longer required that one jump through the well established hoops to achieve the goal. The Internet allows the marketer to go directly to the consumer. We all know this. This is good news. However, there is another even more important problem here.

The Internet is unregulated. This can work greatly in your favor. Or it can kill your efforts.

Any 10 year old on the planet with an html editor can set himself up to look like a major international corporation and offer to sell you products and services. If there is one point I wish to make here it is that most of the methodologies and marketing 'information' you will encounter on the Internet is, in a word, bullshit.

Everybody it seems has the latest, greatest idea. Everyone will show you charts and graphs and numbers and supposed facts in an attempt to lure you in. You may fall for this because you are inexperienced. You may fall for this because it seems so logical. You may fall for this for any number of reasons. In any case, you are, quite simply,

falling for it.

If you really wish to achieve the all-new American dream, the dream of making a really good living while sitting in the comfort of your home or virtual office. you will need to be armed with FACTS.

The FACTS are what I am going to give you here. Here is Fact 1:

If you can create massive amounts of free publicity through TRADITIONAL, well established and acceptable channels, your IMMEDIATE and LONG TERM success is virtually guaranteed. If you cannot, you will fall short of the goal. Period.

Oh yes, granted, you will make SOME sales using the homespun techniques of the 10 year old in Idaho, or the guy who made a hundred sales in a day using some sales letter he sent out to his opt-in marketing list he bought from someone else. No offense here to anyone. Everyone is doing the best they can do using what they have. You can experience a little success using these methods and ideas. But you will never achieve true, long lasting success.

To achieve that goal, you will need to play with the big boys. And you will need to learn to out-think them. You will need to learn how to steal their thunder.

You can ride on the coat-tails of those who have developed these channels and take advantage of their work. You can use the ESTABLISHED channels in creative ways. Wouldn't it be wonderful if the newspaper ran a story on you that was picked up by the wire services and ended up running all over the country? For FREE? How about radio? TV perhaps?

The old, established marketing channels are old and established because they work. They work extremely well.

Guess what?

You do not have to spend $500 to buy a newspaper ad. You can have it for free.
You do not need to spend $275 for a 30 second spot on TV. You can have it for free.

You CAN do this. Believe it or not, armed with the FACTS, it is far easier than you think.

Free Publicity = Free Advertising. Publicity is not advertising per se, as publicity can be positive OR negative. So let's restate this by saying:

Free POSITIVE Publicity CREATES Free Advertising. Massive amounts of it. No cost basis whatsoever.

And so now I will present you with Fact 2. You will want to memorize this one.

To create massive amounts of free publicity (aka free advertising), you need simply to:

Start thinking like a publicist.

For a publicist is nothing more than a master of creating . . . you guessed it

Free publicity.

More at Free Publicity Focus Group

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Free Publicity

This blog will demonstrate how anyone can create a massive publicity / advertising campaign using free publicity tools and techniques. Further information and free articles can be found at the Free Publicity Focus Group website at www.freepublicitygroup.com.

Leia Mais…